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Saturday, 27 July 2013

A witness described Beate Zschäpe, one of five alleged neo-Nazis
on trial for crimes associated with the National Socialist Underground
(NSU) terror cell as “a lovely neighbour” in court on Wednesday.The man, who lived in the same building as Zschäpe in Zwickau, said in
the evenings she often used to join him and other neighbours in his
cellar for a drink, a chat, and a laugh.

“There's nothing wrong with that, it was neighbourly. It's like that in
the East,” said the unnamed witness, a labourer in his mid-40s. She was
“a lovely, good neighbour...friendly, fun, you could have a laugh with
her,” he added.

She had even had her moments of generosity, he said, and told the court
how she had once bought them all pizza while the group watched football
in the back yard.

Chatting over a beer – Zschäpe herself rarely drank, he said, enjoying
only the odd glass of Prosecco or wine – they had never talked about
politics, or foreigners, he insisted.

Also, she had never brought up or referred to the portrait of Adolf
Hitler casually on display on top of the TV-set in his cellar. The man
said he had inherited the memento from a deceased neighbour and
protested that it had no political significance.

The friends were close enough to call Zschäpe - who had told them her
name was “Susann Dienelt” - by the affectionate nickname “Dienelt Maus”
or “Diddl-Maus.” “First of all her name is Dienelt and second of all
she's a mouse,” explained the witness.

The man said he'd had little contact with Zschäpe's flatmates Uwe
Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt, who together with Zschäpe are thought to have
formed the nucleus of the NSU killer cell. She had told her neighbours
that one of them was her boyfriend, the other her brother – but the
witness hadn't known their names and had never asked.

In the end though, the “good neighbour” is thought to have set the whole
house on fire - prosecutors say taking the neighbours' deaths,
including that of an 89-year-old woman who also lived in the building,
as possible collateral damage.

When her two male accomplices died in a murder-suicide in early November
2011, Zschäpe is accused of pouring petrol all over their shared flat
and igniting it, setting off an explosion so strong that part of the
building's outside wall blew off.